


Everything We Believed

by Mireille



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-14
Updated: 2005-06-14
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:00:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: Jasmine just wants her followers to be happy.





	Everything We Believed

"Jasmine thinks we should, uh, talk," Angel said, sitting down across from Wesley and sliding a cup of coffee over to him. 

Wesley took the coffee with a slight smile. "Thank you. It's been a long night." He looked around the lobby; the tables they'd set up for the influx of people who'd come to praise Jasmine were nearly empty now, except for a few scattered paper plates and Styrofoam cups.

"Yeah. This is all pretty incredible, huh? I mean, _she's_ incredible, we all know that, but this…." 

"We're changing the world," Wesley said quietly. "I imagine that long hours are part of the job." 

Nodding, Angel said, "You look kind of tired. If you want to go up and get some sleep, we can always talk about this tomorrow."

He shook his head. "No. If Jasmine thinks it's important, then I'm sure it is." It was, frankly, a relief to have Jasmine, to be able to put his trust so fully in someone else. He didn't have to rely on his own judgment, didn't have to second-guess and worry. That was just one of the dozens of ways she'd already made the world a better place. 

"Yeah. She thinks we should talk about… what happened last year." Angel picked up his own cup of coffee, not drinking from it, just looking down into it. 

Wesley tensed a little, out of long reflex, but then made himself relax. Jasmine had their best interests at heart, always; she wouldn't have sent Angel to talk to him if she hadn't thought this was what they both needed. "All right," he said hesitantly. He didn't quite know what to say about it, but if Jasmine wanted them to address it, he'd do his best. 

Angel shrugged. "I don't have a lot to say, really. Just that… it's all in the past, at least as far as I'm concerned. All that anger… she talked to me about it, and she's right. It's something I have to let go." He smiled, looking happier than Wesley had seen him since Connor was a baby; he'd have worried about Angel being too happy, but he knew Jasmine wouldn't allow that to happen. 

"Besides," Angel went on, "she pointed out that if you hadn't-- if Connor hadn't grown up in Quor'toth--she wouldn't be here." He smiled at Wesley again. "You did the right thing," he said quietly. "We wouldn't have had Jasmine, at least, not yet. Connor had to grow up to be her father." 

Wesley smiled back, and if he'd thought he'd felt happy and peaceful before, he'd been wrong. _This_ was being at peace. This was how it felt to know that everything was going to be all right. That everything was all right. "Thank you," he said again, quietly. 

"I ought to be thanking you," Angel said. "You helped bring Jasmine into the world, and--" He shook his head. "And I'm glad I realized that, because I, uh. I missed you."

Wesley blinked at that. "You did?" No one had _seemed_ to miss him, unless they needed his help with something, and since Angel had made it quite clear that Wesley would never be trusted again, never be forgiven….

"Yeah." Angel got up, coming around to Wesley's side of the table, still smiling. "Jasmine's opened my eyes to a lot of stuff."

"She's done that for all of us," Wesley agreed. 

Angel just stood there for a minute, looking awkward and uncomfortable. "I'm still not sure--Wes, I don't know what to say, so can I just--" 

And then Wesley was fairly certain that he'd fallen asleep with his head on the table, because Angel leaned down and kissed him. His lips were cool, but not unpleasantly so, and Wesley decided that if this was a dream, it was an unusually realistic one. 

Dream or not, he gave in after a moment and kissed Angel back. If this was a dream, it wasn't as though he'd never dreamed this before, although of late it had always turned into a nightmare partway through, and if it was real… He parted his lips slightly, and Angel murmured, "God, Wes," against his mouth, pulling Wesley up to his feet and kissing him again. 

They stood there like that for a long time, Angel's arms wrapped tightly around Wesley, Wesley clutching back at him, not wanting to let this moment slip away from him. He'd wanted this for so long, and he'd thought he'd been reconciled to the fact that he would never have it, after he'd taken Connor. Now it was here; Angel was here, Angel wanted him--there could be no doubt of that, not the way Angel was kissing him. Not the way Angel was looking at him, eyes filled with warmth and desire and… Wesley couldn't bring himself to believe any word stronger than "affection," but he could believe that, certainly.

"I thought," Wesley said between kisses, "we were meant to be talking?"

"I don't think Jasmine will mind," Angel said. "I think she just wanted me to tell you everything was okay between us." He paused, looking a little concerned. "Everything is okay between us, right?"

Wesley leaned up to kiss him again, jutting his hips forward slightly so that his erection pressed into Angel's hip. "Oh, yes," he said. "Everything is quite all right."

Angel grinned, shifting position so that his thigh rubbed against Wesley's cock. "Good. And I think Jasmine's going to be glad we worked this out."

Wesley gasped, biting down gently on Angel's lower lip. "She does want us to be happy," he said. 

"Let's go upstairs, then, and I'll see what I can do about that," Angel said. 

Wesley thought about telling Angel that he was already happier than he could remember being, but then he decided there was always room for more happiness in the world. 

***

**Epilogue** :

Wesley awoke to a strange feeling of emptiness--and a nasty headache, but that seemed unimportant next to how very hollow he felt. The ties between himself and Jasmine had been broken, and he was left only with the horrible knowledge that she wasn't anything like what he'd believed her to be. _Wrong again, Wesley_ , he thought, and his inner critic had his father's voice. 

Then he opened his eyes, blinking until his surroundings came into focus. Gunn was on the floor nearby, rubbing the back of his head and looking just as bereft as Wesley felt; Lorne was there, still holding the baseball bat that he'd apparently whacked them on the head with; Fred was watching them worriedly. And there was Angel, looking at him with no warmth at all; no understanding, no forgiveness. No affection.

He'd lost both of them, then: Jasmine and Angel. And he'd never really had Angel; it had all been part of... whatever it was that Jasmine was up to. Lies and deception, and he'd fallen for it. 

"Everything we believed... deception," he said, quietly. The others would think he was only talking about Jasmine, and Angel--he was fool enough to hope that Angel would tell him he was wrong. 

Angel didn't meet his eyes, though, and Wesley recognized this particular, all too familiar, feeling: being sorry that he was right.

**Author's Note:**

> [me on tumblr](https://mireille719.tumblr.com)


End file.
